Anika Larsen

Age: "I'm flirtin' with 30."

Currently: Spreading the love as sassy Roberta in off-Broadway's Zanna, Don't!

Hometown: Cambridge, Massachusetts "Cambridge prides itself on being a very diverse, multi-cultural city," Larsen says, which is why she loves going home to her huge family of nine brothers and sisters. "Six of my brothers and sisters are adopted from all over the world," she explains. "There are eight of us within five years of each other. I learned very quickly that I could get attention by singing loud!"

Take What You Can Get: Larsen graduated from Yale University as an undergrad drama major "At Yale, there's this whole sub-culture of a capella singing groups, and I was in a group where I was the only white girl." and moved to New York to pursue her acting career, which she initially funded with a series of temp jobs. She took any and every job she could get since "I didn't know who I would meet or where it would lead. You just never know, like Zanna, Don't! It was just a little reading when I joined it. Who knew that it would turn into this?"

Try, Try Again: Larsen went to the very first open call for Broadway's Rent and waited seven and a half hours for her shot. "I sang my 16 bars and that was it," she laughs. "And then later they had another open call just for Maureens and Bennys, and so I went and stood in a long line of white girls and black boys and then from there got a callback…and more callbacks." Eventually, she was cast as a temporary ensemble replacement for 1997's L.A. company and later took the show on the road playing a variety of roles, including Maureen: "We were always the most exciting thing happening in town. Once in Dallas I was in the supermarket wearing my [show jacket] and one of the women who worked there got so excited she opened up a new checkout for me because she thought I shouldn't have to wait in line!"

Two Step: After a year and a half on the road, Larsen spent some time in Rent's Broadway company until last spring when she auditioned on a whim for the reading of Zanna, Don't!. Though she didn't realize she knew anyone involved with the show, she discovered at the audition that she had actually taken a step aerobics class with director/choreographer Devanand Janki. "As I walked out of the audition he said, 'See you in step class!' I thought, 'Well, didn't get that part!' But apparently I did," she laughs.

That's Me in the Spotlight: In the world of Zanna, Don't!, where everyone is gay and people come out of the closet as straight, Larsen is once again playing a feisty, big-voiced lesbian character like Rent's Maureen. "I've sure done a lot of girl kissin' in the last couple of years!" Larsen loved being in on the process of developing her character, Roberta, and is proud that so much of her own personality actually shows up on stage. "Now I know what people mean when they say they created a role. She's like me without the censor or without the editor that stops you from saying what you're really feeling."

Shake It Up: Recently nominated for a Lucille Lortel Award for her standout performance, Larsen doesn't quite know how to handle the attention. "I have this sort of bizarre double-sided complex," she says. "I have this thing where I crave attention but then once I get it, I start to feel uncomfortable. It all honestly makes me a little uneasy because we're such a strong ensemble." She just can't say enough about the Zanna crew. "Everyone is just so fun and good and honest and available. The other day we were actually laughing because we have no backstage drama and I'm starting to get a little upset with people. We're not a real cast of a real show until we have a little! So maybe you should quote
me--maybe I should say something evil about somebody's mother."

I'd Be Surprisingly Good: While Larsen would love to see Zanna recorded, she doesn't really have the desire to belt numbers on an album of her own. "Everybody keeps telling me I should be on American Idol and I'm like, 'First of all, honey, I'm too old. But second of all, I don't want to be a pop star. I love the theater,'" she says. "All I want really is to work continuously. But someday--I don't care where it is, in somebody's barn, in somebody's high school, in somebody's backyard--I want to play Evita. So I'm going to make that happen. It may be in my own shower, but I'll do it some day."